And oh how brightly they shine
by Madame BonBons
Summary: Or, how the first Order of the Phoenix crumbled. /human beings are a lot like stars./


**This was written for the Quotes Challenge over on HPFC. Check it out, it's fantastic. **

**I was given the quotes "The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next." and "There is a sacredness in tears. They are not a mark of weakness, but of power." I was also given the prompt 'stars'.**

**This almost fits with my other story _and only hope remains_, so I may develop on some of the other stories within this one. Enjoy and review! :)**

**_Disclaimer disclaimer disclaimer_  
**

* * *

Stars are funny things. They are shining points in the sky, beacons for sailors, points for loved up couples, sentient beings for those who believe. They can be extinct before we see them in the sky. We could be looking at a memory of something that once was, that will never be there again or has yet to be created. They are random explosions, huge balls of gas in space. They can be created in an instant and die soon after.

In some ways, stars are exactly like human beings.

Humans are funny things. They live and they die and nothing can be done about this. We are made up of millions and millions of cells and atoms all joined together in complex chemical structures. We are created in an instant and die soon after.

In some ways, human beings are exactly like stars.

Some shine brightly and have a short life of brilliance, bravery, tragedy and love.

Some live long lives which are equally as important and meaningful.

Some exist, without purpose, without thought, without bravery.

The members of the Order of the Phoenix are not these people.

They are courageous, they are brave, they are selfless and they shine like stars in the night sky, ever present, but ever ready to die. And they do die.

* * *

**_1978_**

Caradoc Dearborn is never seen again.

He walks out of an Order of the Phoenix meeting with Benji Fenwick and Emmeline Vance, chuckling at a joke that the young Sirius Black uttered. He Apparates to his house with a wave back at his companions and a cheeky retort thrown to the happy couple, their laughter and mischievous insults barely heard over the crack of his Apparation.

His house is quiet when he walks in but even in the dark he can see the outline of blood on the floor and the broken glass littering the kitchen floor. He has no time to react when they come up behind him and gag him.

Hours later, his body is vanished, and Caradoc Dearborn is never seen again.

* * *

The McKinnons are next. Marlene is taken in the middle of the night, after leaving Gideon Prewett's house without her cardigan, her high heels in her hands, a giggle on her lips and a kiss pressed quickly to lips which are warm and plead for her to come back to bed.

She doesn't, and the storm outside hides her pleas and cries for help when they come and take her away.

They find her body battered and almost unidentifiable; Gideon's watch wrapped around her wrist the only thing that allows Dorcas Meadowes, her best friend, to identify her. Her family is dead around her and her younger sister is found lying on the floor beside Marlene, who had been forced to watch her die.

Gideon beats himself up and Fabian can only watch, while Molly sobs thinking about the girl who could have been a sister and holds her swollen stomach protectively and Dorcas Meadowes cries into Fabian's shoulder.

She is buried on a sunny afternoon and the new recruits, Black, Potter, Lupin, Evans and Pettigrew all offer condolences and seem out of place. Gideon just looks at them and resents their vitality and privately tells Potter to hurry up and marry his girl, or she'll be gone.

* * *

_**1979**_

Lily and James' wedding is a success, and for once those in the order are able to relax and enjoy the night. There are gaps in the wedding party and the Prewett brothers are absent.

Sirius makes a shocking speech which Fabian would have laughed at and slapped the table, causing Dorcas to giggle and then the rest of the wedding party would have started laughing.

He isn't there, so instead all that happens is Lily nearly strangles Sirius and Albus Dumbledore chuckles amusedly.

Lily and James share a dance so sweet that Gideon would have been reduced to tears, causing the rest of the girls to cry.

He isn't there, so instead Minerva wipes a tear away and Alice and Frank Longbottom join in with the newly married couple and soon everyone is dancing.

The Prewetts are found dead in the Order safe house in the morning, a picture of Marlene in Gideon's pocket, Fabian's watch on his wrist. Five dead Death Eaters are surrounding them.

Dorcas tries not cry, but she is all alone in the world. Benji Fenwick holds Emmeline Vance close to him and Hestia Jones blows her nose loudly into her tissue. Molly Weasley bawls her eyes out, holding a squalling baby in her arms.

Albus Dumbledore makes a touching speech, talking about how brave and valiant they were, and how they shone like stars, their brilliance evident to all who had the pleasure of their company.

Dorcas does not cry and Albus comes up to her a few days later.

"You know, my dear, there is a sacredness in tears. They are not a mark of weakness, but of power." He tells her, offering a cockroach cluster and a squeeze of the shoulder.

Dorcas cries that night for the first time, and gives Molly Fabian's watch and disappears into the night to be alone.

* * *

She is killed next.

She is walking down the lane to The Burrow and she is Stunned.

She wakes up in her apartment and Voldemort is standing in the corner. He chuckles when he sees her awake and then proceeds to break into her mind as surely as a cook would crack an egg.

She is insane by the time he is done with her and so he kills her, leaving behind a woman with blonde hair and brown eyes and an engagement ring on her finger.

She is buried next to Fabian, and Hestia Jones makes a sweet speech about how she was always there for a chat whenever needed. There are far too many empty places in the Order safe house, and everyone is afraid of what is to come.

Dorcas Meadowes becomes just another name on a list of casualties and Lily Potter wonders who will be next.

* * *

All that is ever found of Benji Fenwick is his finger.

He kisses Emmeline swiftly and Disapparates into the night to meet Alastor Moody and does not arrive.

He is ambushed by Death Eaters and tortures and mutilated, but Emmeline will never know that.

The last thing he thinks is that they have a traitor within the Order, and he dies scared.

Emmeline has no one left to comfort her. Doc is gone, Marlene is gone, the Prewett's are gone and now Benji is gone too. She stops coming to Order meetings, not because she is not brave and doesn't want to make a difference in the increasingly sinister world, but because she has nothing to live for anymore.

* * *

_**1980**_

The Bones are next.

James Potter and Sirius Black go to their house to pop in for a chat and are greeted with the site of devastation and death when they walk in the front door.

They are all dead. Edgar, Emily, little John and the baby Charlotte. All dead, the children mercifully, Emily not so mercifully, and Edgar is hardly recognisable.

James sits on the staircase for a good hour until Dumbledore and Lily arrive and he hugs her so tightly that she complains about him squashing her ever growing stomach, but she doesn't let go of him for the rest of the night and they soon disappear back to their secret house. Sirius does not crack a joke once, and back at the new Order safe house he drinks a whole bottle of Firewhiskey and sits staring at the fire until there are only embers left.

At the funeral, Amelia Bones cries silently and her older brother, Edgar's twin, holds his heavily pregnant wife the whole time and leaves after clenching his jaw until it seems he cannot move it any more.

* * *

_**1981**_

"I'm sick of being stuck in this bloody house!" James hisses to Lily on Halloween.

She scowls at him and brings Harry his dinner of mashed potato and peas and small pieces of ham.

"You don't have to be brave all of the time James! I want our son to have his parents." Her green eyes are sparkling.

"I feel like a coward, Lily. I love you and Harry, but I want to be out there doing something courageous."

Lily sits down on the couch next to him, curling into him and breathing into his neck.

"The problem with the world, James Potter, is that people seem to have to forgotten that the only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next. I married you because I love you and you are the bravest and most selfless person I know. Now, be selfish and live for me and Harry."

She kisses him softly and runs a hand down his cheek and goes into the kitchen. James makes coloured bubbles come out of his wand for Harry.

They die for him, courageously and swiftly. Harry lives.

* * *

Human beings are a lot like stars.

Some shine brightly and have a short life of brilliance, bravery, tragedy and love.

Some live long lives which are equally as important and meaningful.

Some exist, without purpose, without thought, without bravery.

The Order of the Phoenix are not these people.

They are courageous, they are brave, they are selfless and they shine like stars in the night sky, ever present, but ever ready to die. And they do die.

Some are remembered, some are forgotten. Some have stories told about them.

Some are supernovas, lighting up the sky or other's lives; some just twinkle faintly but surely.

One thing is for sure though, every single one of them has a place and each is beautiful.

Human beings are a lot like stars and all of them deserve to be remembered.

* * *

**Meh. Review (and favourite) please!**


End file.
